Dance review: Orlando Ballet's 'Vampire's Ball'

Matthew J. Palm, Orlando Sentinel Entertainment Critic

Orlando Ballet artistic director Robert Hill talks a lot about making ballet relevant to modern audiences. But with an ad campaign based on the ballet "bringing sexy back," modern-dance influences can seem to be squeezing out classical dancing in the company's programs.

With "Vampire's Ball," though, Hill gets the mix of ingredients just right — modern entertainment sensibilities, some lovely classical dance moments, and, yes, a bit of sex appeal all bubbling together like a winning formula in some mad scientist's lab.

It's a frightfully entertaining evening of energetic dancing and beautiful theatricality. "Vampire's Ball" is gorgeous to look at with costumes by Eddy Frank Fernandez in deep reds, violets and purple. Multiple stylish backdrops of a cemetery, a dungeon and more set the scene and tell the tale. (Larry Rayburn is director of production.)

And real effort has been put into the staging, with surprise after surprise: The clever way the Vampiress rises from the graveyard or how in the second act, as plush curtains hang from the ceiling and a young woman nervously… oh, wait, I won't spoil it.

It's not all visual cleverness, either. There are some fun touches to Hill's original story: It's children who hold the key to innocence, for example. And he throws in some inside-ballet jokes: A scene in the mad scientist's laboratory plays out to music from the ballet "Giselle" — the scene in which Giselle goes mad.

Anyone who has told a ghost story knows how Hill's story will go. A mad scientist brings a creature to life. A pair of innocents get caught up with the undead. Yet Hill has found a few modern twists: Both the Vampiress and the Vampire want to claim the innocent man as their own. And with the physical charisma and athletically graceful moves of relative newcomer David Kiyak, who can blame them?

Kiyak, who does his part to bring sexy back by performing in black shorts and a sort of harness, shares some romance with A Reum Chung in a tender pas de deux. Later, when they are not so innocent, they share another dance, though the choreography there could better represent their transformations into denizens of the night.

Katia Garza and Daniel Benavides as rival bloodsuckers have flashy moments but stronger choreography would better demonstrate their characters' power. (Nicolas Fonseca plays the lead vampire on Saturday.) Douglas Horne and Balazs Krajczar as the scientist and his creation demonstrate the power of dancers' control of their bodies. Just watch Krajczar's creature jerk his way into existence.

Horne later shares a fiery dance with Orlando Ballet School student Arcadian Broad, who also takes a turn at the grand piano to great effect.

Three newcomers to the company — Lamin Pereira, Nieser Zambrana Reyes and apprentice Telmo Moreira — introduce themselves by nicely tackling the trickiest footwork of the evening.

But the company numbers, boasting improved precision over recent performances, in some ways exceed the individual showcases. Graceful lines and snappy movements bring the undead to life, as it were. Watching ballerinas skitter across the stage en pointe is akin to watching something otherworldly float by.

By the time the actual ball rolls around, climaxing with a crowd-favorite piece from Hill's "Battle of the Sexes" program, the plot has all but been forgotten. Why would the innocents be cavorting with the undead? (Maybe for the same reason the cheerleader always goes unarmed and alone into a dark basement in a slasher film?)